Early Friday morning, the popular Jill's Place restaurant located on
Santa Barbara Street, suffered major damage from a fire that appears to
have erupted in the kitchen area.

Firefighters were dispatched to the fire at 3:43 in the morning. Arriving
fire crews reported seeing smoke coming from the building from a block
away.

Firefighters quickly gained access to the building through the kitchen
door and searched the building for occupants. The building was empty.

Firefighters found a smoldering fire in the kitchen area. Judging from the
extent of the fire damage, it appeared the raging fire had starved itself of
oxygen. These types of fires can actually be quite dangerous to
firefighters. The sudden introduction of oxygen - with the opening of a
door for example, can cause a smoldering fire to explode, engulfing the
firefighters in flame. Fortunately, this did not happen and firefighters
were able to quickly douse the fire.

As crews worked in the kitchen, another set of firefighters were up on
the roof cutting holes to provide ventilation.

The restaurant suffered major smoke and water damage. Summoned to
the fire were 4 fire engines and the ladder truck. In all, 16 firefighters
commanded by 1 Battalion Chief fought the fire and managed to contain
the fire to the kitchen area of the restaurant.

SBPD officers were already on scene when firefighters arrived and
provided traffic control. Paramedics stood by in case of injuries. There
were no injuries reported. Fire crews remained on scene until about
7:45 a.m. mopping up, making sure there were no flare-ups and
investigating the cause of the fire.

We hope that Jill is able to get her place back in operation as soon as
possible.